Before it All
by fangirlsforever23
Summary: One-shot. Jace is eleven years old and his both of his parents are dead. He is forced to live with the Lightwoods, and leave everything else behind. While he meets his new family, he runs into the Morgensterns. Will this be the start of Jace's cockiness?


**On my other fan fic I mentioned writing another story… this isn't it! This is a completely different story. Plus, I said that that one would be a crossover. (Not to mention, this is a one-shot..)**

**That's all, I guess…**

**I do not own The Mortal Instruments. Though, as many others, I wish I did. **

Alec and Isabelle sat impatiently, as they felt the vibration of the horses' hooves plop against the hard pavement. Though the young Lightwoods lived in New York, they had just arrived in Alicante. Alec was excited, of course. The twelve year old couldn't wait to meet the mysterious Jonathan Herondale. Apparently, his father died in a vampire raid, and his mother killed herself out of the motivation of grief. Despite the tragedy of the loss of his family, the Clave did not mention anything out of the ordinary of the boy's behavior.

But that was just Alec.

Isabelle didn't want to be there at all. She didn't want another addition to the family, especially after her younger brother Max was just born only months ago. In fact, she was supposed to be with her best friend, Clarissa Morgenstern, who was originally going to be staying over for the weekend, before they were requested by the Inquisitor to take care of her precious grandson. He was to stay with Lightwoods in the New York Institute, and "be apart of the family".

Isabelle couldn't help the scowl that spread across her face. This was her family! Why should she let anyone else join?

"Isabelle! Why are you so angry?" Maryse asked her, as she balanced the youngest Lightwood upon her knee.

"Why am I angry?" She snapped back at her mother. Her voice bounced against the walls of the carriage, making it seem louder than she was actually speaking

.

Despite Isabelle having snapped at her mother, Maryse seemed unfazed at her sudden outburst. This was usual behavior for the ten year old shadowhunter. "Yes, that is what I asked."

"I am angry that this boy thinks he can join our family! He isn't a Lightwood!"

Before her mother could say a thing, her father- and Maryse's husband- responded. "Stephen was a very close friend of mine. His life will be mourned, and we will move on. But that does not mean we will abandon his child just because he is gone. Everyone deserves a family, and I believe that we should be more than welcome to invite Jonathan into ours."

"Just because _you _believe that, does not mean that the rest of us feel the same. Especially, me."

They continued their journey, but with silence.

Halfway there, Alec- who had been quiet the entire conversation- spoke up. "Izzy, what do you think Jonathan will be like? Will I finally have a parabatai?" he asked hopefully.

"Well, if he's anything like _our_ Jonathan Morgenstern…" she smiled at the sound of his name. Jonathan Morgenstern was Clary's older brother, who Isabelle had been crushing on for quite some time now. Though, for some reason, Isabelle can't get the boy to notice her.

Alec was oblivious to Isabelle's crush. "That actually wouldn't be so bad. Jonathan and I needed another person to spar with. And if he is as any good as he is…maybe he could teach me!"

Isabelle sighed. That was _not_ what she meant.

As she was opening her mouth to reply to her older brother, the carriage came to a halt.

Robert pushed open the doors of the carriage, grabbed Max, and helped his wife down. Alec jumped down next, and turned to help his sister, who waved him off, and jumped down on her own.

Alec and Isabelle gazed around the beautiful city of Alicante. This would be the second time they came here, and Max's first.

As they looked around, she couldn't help but notice that the building of the Council seemed…vacant. There was no one there, except a boy about the height and age of Alec, who seemed to be staring at something in his hand. As they approached, Isabelle realized that it was a small wooden toy, which he quickly slipped into his pocket once he realized he had company.

He looked up, and the Lightwood family saw that the young boy was remarkably golden- his features included. He had auburn, gold eyes, a tanned skin, and golden hair. They also noticed that for such a young boy, he was extremely attractive.

_Too attractive_, Isabelle thought.

Maryse introduced herself, Max, and her husband, then, indicated that Isabelle and Alec do the same.

Isabelle sighed, and extended her hand. "I'm Isabelle, and this is my brother, Alec."

Jonathan shook her hand. "I'm Jonathan, but preferred it if you'd call me Jace."

She nodded as her brother asked: "How old are you?"

"Eleven," was all Jace said.

The ride back to Ragnor Fell's house was filled with an uncomfortable silence. They were heading there for their transportation back to New York.

Jace was silent the entire time, even though they all attempted to make conversation. The truth is he didn't want to talk. It had barely been a month since Michael Wayland had visited his house to inform Jace and his mother that his father was dead. It had barely been a week after that when Jace had watched his mother slit her wrists in grief. But most of all, it had barely been a week since his grandmother put him up for adoption because he reminded her to much of his father, Stephen.

All of this wasn't his fault, of course. But that didn't stop him from believing so.

As the carriage pulled up in the driveway of the warlock's estate, Jace prepared himself for lots of questions from the people of the New York institute. All shadowhunters were the same in one category: curiosity. And he wasn't in the mood for it.

They all got out the carriage, and headed for the door. Just as Robert was about to knock on the door, a man swung the door open, and greeted the shadowhunters inside.

Jace noticed as the man ushered them all inside a bare room , that he was a warlock. He also noticed the warlock's mark; though, anybody could've noticed that the man had green skin.

"Jonathan! So nice to finally meet you!" the warlock struck out his hand, and Jace took it gingerly. "I'm Ragnor, as you may have already known."

He took his hand back, and turned toward the wall, giving the young boy no time to respond, and opened the Portal.

"Alright, everyone through. Oh, and Maryse? I expect my money to be in cash."

Maryse rolled her eyes, and handed Max to Alec, as her and the other adults stepped aside to converse.

"Well?" said Isabelle. "Aren't you going to go through?"

He shrugged and Alec narrowed his eyes.

"Haven't you ever gone through a Portal?" Alec wondered.

"Once. With my father…" that ended the conversation, and Jace decided to step through first.

On the other side of the Portal was the mundane world, as far as Jace could tell. He didn't know where he was- he hadn't bothered to ask.

What he did know was that he was standing in front of a massive church, and looming above him was a tall black gate, and inside the gate was two children, no doubt around his age. One was extremely short- in his opinion- and was female. She had long ginger hair, and beautiful, green eyes.

The other child must have been her brother, because he had the same facial features, except being short, he was a good head taller than her and had white- blonde hair.

"Hey, where's Isabelle and Alec?" the boy asked him.

Jace pointed behind him, towards the Portal.

"Oh," the boy said. "Well, aren't you going to come in?"

"I don't know how to enter an Institute." Jace said.

The ginger narrowed her eyes. "You don't? Why not?"

He shrugged. "No one ever taught me."

By then, everyone else had stepped through the Portal, and gathered around Jace. All the eyes on him was starting to make him nervous, but he wasn't going to let them know that.

"Alec, would you show Jace how to enter a Institute?" he heard Maryse say.

The dark haired boy nodded, and his father handed him a seraph blade. Jace watched as Alec cut himself across his palm, and placed his hand on the tall gate. He heard Alec murmur some words under his breath, and the two children on the other side of the gate stepped back as the gate swung open.

Alec stepped across the premise, and walked towards the blonde haired boy as Isabelle ran to the ginger. After that, they all seemed to forget about that moment as they talked amongst each other. Jace instantly felt uncomfortable, and began walking towards the Institute. At that moment, all he wanted to do was be alone: away from everything and everyone, away from life, away from the truth.

He was so caught up in reaching his goal, he had hadn't noticed that the red head was running to catch up with him. "Wait up!" she yelled, and Jace slowed down and turned around.

"Hi. I didn't actually introduce myself back there. I'm Clary."

Now that Jace was in closer proximity with the girl, he noticed that she had freckles- lots of it. "Jace.."

They shook hands and Clary pointed to the boy she was with earlier. "Over there is my brother. His name is Jonathan."

Jace nodded and continued his way down the path to the church.

"Wait!" she called again. "Do you even know where you're going?"

"No…"

She seemed to smile in triumph. "Exactly. Let me show you."

Jace followed her into the Institute, and down the hall, towards a grand staircase. She led him upstairs and made a turn, that he soon forgot. A few minutes later, Jace couldn't stand the silence. It seemed that's all that followed him everywhere now was uncomfortable silence, and he couldn't take it anymore.

For the first time since he got there, he attempted conversation. "So, how many shadowhunters live here?"

Clary glanced behind her, but didn't stop walking. "Not a lot. Just the Lightwoods….and I guess you now."

"I'm assuming you don't live here then."

She shook her head. "No. my family- the Morgensterns- run the Manhattan Institute not too far from here." She stopped in front of a slightly ajar door, and turned toward Jace.

"If you don't live here, how come you know so much? Why didn't Alec or Isabelle show me to my room?"

A small smile tugged at the girl's lips. "I might as well live here, considering how much I'm here. Anyways, this is your room. Across from you is Isabelle's room, and two doors down from you is Alec's." she pointed down the hall. "And the last two rooms down there is mine and Jonathan's."

Jace raised an eyebrow.

Clary shrugged. "I did say we were here a lot."

Jace smirked despite himself, and turned towards his room. He hadn't brought anything from Alicante so packing should be easy.

Just as he was heading towards the bathroom, Clary called to him yet again.

"You aren't the cocky type, are you?"

This time he raised both eyebrows. "What makes you think that?"

"Because Jonathan is,_ and _you're cute enough for it."

Jace blinked, and with that, she left, leaving Jace to wonder if she had just blushed.

**So, while I was writing this story, I developed an unintentional obsession with Jackson 5… Weird, right? They are **_**way **_**before my time. **

**Anyways, thank you for reading this story I also would really appreciated it if you reviewed. They encourage me a lot… **

**Thank you again!**


End file.
